The Progressive Democrat Newsletter grew out of the frustration of the 2004 election. Originally intended for New York City progressives, its readership is now national. For anyone who wants to be alerted by email whenever this newsletter is updated (usually weekly), please send your email address and let me know what state you live in (so I can keep track of my readership).

Former chair of College Republicans of WI leaves GOP

The out- going Chair, Lora Rae Anderson has been eager to share her thoughts for some time now about the nature of the Republican Party and her experience this year, “There have obviously been issues with members of the Republican Party, as there are with members of any group. However, when a member of a political party says or does something inappropriate, it has become common practice to either stand by it or ignore it for the sake of promoting the party,” said Anderson, “The way we put partisanship on a pedestal in this country is a gross disregard for the idea that most Americans have diverse thoughts and ideas; there are more than two political paradigms in the United States.”

In 2008, the Republican Party was happy to announce that they had passed their “most conservative platform ever.” This might be appealing to current members of the Republican Party but is not appealing to the vast majority of moderate Americans. “The Republican Party is alienating a younger, more progressive generation through its new ‘conservative platform’ which ignores issues such as gay marriage. Marriage, at least as the law would put it, is a civil right. Allowing those people who want to get married to be married is consistent with the Republican Party’s ‘government hand’s off’ platform. This is an area where most College Republicans agree, but for one reason or another, stay quiet and don’t stand up to the older members of our party” said Anderson.

A few notable individuals in the Republican Party and in the Conservative Movement (which the Republican Party bows to), have gone unchecked in the past year. One such example was Pat Robertson and his comments on the victims of the Haiti earthquake. Others include those Republicans who voted against Senator Al Frankin’s amendment to the 2010 Defense Appropriation Bill, condemning rape. Also to be included would be Glenn Beck, who, in his speech at CPAC this year criticized all government spending and was hypocritical enough to express that he was self taught in his paradigm, and learned at a public library.

One incident which hits closer to home for Lora Rae is that of Eau Claire County Republican Chairman, Brian Westrate’s remarks. In a facebook argument with some of Anderson’s friends who respectfully subscribe to leftist politics he used a cultural insult and racial slurs to argue. “Racial slurs obviously don’t sit well with me, but when somebody knowingly racially slurs my friends; I am personally insulted. While being in my position, I didn’t speak out about Westrate’s clear disregard for decency. That decision was wrong, I should have stood up for the parties insulted. Needless to say, I will not be renewing my membership to the Eau Claire County Republican Party or the Republican Party of Wisconsin for the year 2010.”

Another local example close to home is Juneau County DA, Scott Southworth threatening prosecution to any teacher who teach sex education because of his clearly skewed and extreme interpretation of law. It has been proven time and time again that sex education reduces abortion rates, and has helped society. Anderson’s comment was “I understand that there is always need for progress and reform in sex education, but trying to abolish it all together is simply not the answer, many students don’t have the luxury of having parents around to properly teach them values or safety concerning sex.”

The Republicans leadership has long ceased to care about actually governing America and seems hell-bent on destroying America in their insane desire to run everything according to their own extremist ideology. People like Lora Rae Anderson are being increasingly driven out of the Republican Party. I have hope that the extremism we have been seeing on the right will slowly die out and perhaps the Republican Party can return to actually helping to GOVERN America.